


Crash Landing

by The_Snarkivist



Series: Songs to Stories [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Series 03 Fix-It: Children of Earth (Torchwood), adapted from a song, songs to stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28154541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Snarkivist/pseuds/The_Snarkivist
Summary: "I got you," Ianto said, "you're mine.""But we don't belong to each other," Jack replied, "we don't belong to anyone."
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: Songs to Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2062575
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	Crash Landing

**Author's Note:**

> Another in my series of plundering songs I'm listening to for Torchwood content. I was listening to some old cds and got stuck on "Crash Landing" by Rae Spoon. This is one of my all time favourite songs but this time listening to it I saw a Torchwood angle. So apologies to Rae Spoon because this story very liberally quotes from their song including the running motif "we don't belong to each other, we don't belong to anyone."

Jack sat at the bar. He'd been drinking a lot again. The memories poured in like the whiskey that burned his throat. 

Ianto wearing Jack's shirt and nothing else as they chased each other around the Hub, both holding plastic guns in some pretend alien shootout. Ianto caught Jack and pulled him near, kissing him. They laughed, two grown men playing games. 

"I got you," Ianto said, "you're mine." 

"But we don't belong to each other," Jack replied, "we don't belong to anyone."

And then other times, him and Ianto lying in bed, trying to catch their breath from their exertions, sated and happy, the sweat on their bodies glistening. 

"I like you like this in my bed." Ianto said. 

"But we don't belong to each other," Jack said, "we don't belong to anyone." 

After, after it happened, of course Jack had started drinking heavily again. He ignored the concerned looks that Gwen and Rhys gave him. How could he do anything but drink? How could he face the world sober when everything was gone. When everything he touched, he destroyed? He burned down everything he loved. Everything was dust in his useless immortal hands. 

Nights in the Hub when they laid on Jack's small cot, he held Ianto tight in his arms. He felt the younger man's breathing synched to his, he felt Ianto's precious heart beating, synched to his. 

He thought maybe? Maybe he could overcome it all: all the death, all the pain. Maybe with Ianto by his side it would be different? But Ianto looked at him sadly, knowing the truth, knowing how his time was finite. 

"But we don't belong to each other," Ianto said sadly, "we don't belong to anyone." 

So now all that was left for Jack was this crash landing fueled by alcohol and self hatred. He had no plans beside burning down his life and going. He had to leave, this city, this country, this planet. It was all a graveyard. It was littered with the bodies of his lovers, children, grandchildren, friends, employees. All of them he had loved. All of them he had destroyed. 

So he sat in this bar in Cardiff a month after Ianto was gone. He sat and he drank. The bar was busy, bustling bodies, coming, going, meeting, separating. It was a blur. 

And then he saw him. He saw him across the bar, facing away from Jack, looking for something. A brown haired man, wearing a suit exactly like Ianto had owned. He wore it as well as Ianto did. It was a coincidence. Lots of brown haired, tall Welshmen in Cardiff. But the suit and the hair. Jack felt woozy, he nearly passed out. So cruel of this stranger who was not his dead lover to wear that suit. His Ianto's suit. His...

But then he remembered. Jack put his head on the table and he said to himself, "we don't belong to each other, we don't belong to anyone." 

Time passed, it could have been minutes, it could have been seconds. He felt a tap on his shoulder, probably the bouncer about to throw him out again.

He sat up and did a double take. How could it be? 

"Ianto?" He said, not believing his eyes. "Am I dreaming?" 

"No Jack. It's me. I'm back." 

"But how?" 

"I don't know, the Rift brought me back. I don't understand it myself."

"I..." Jack couldn't form words, tears streamed down his face.

"I know..." Ianto was crying too as he pulled Jack into an embrace. 

They clung to each other, sobbing for what they almost lost. 

Ianto smoothed a hand over Jack's back and whispered in his ear.

"We were wrong, you know? We *do* belong to each other. And we belong to everyone."

**Author's Note:**

> This is the best version of the song I could find on youtube (there isn't an album version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87hAPb4iABM 
> 
> Also, I hope it isn't offensive to take a song full of such authentic longing and heartbreak and use it for a story with a sappy happy ending. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!! I would love to hear what you think!


End file.
